Cuomo, a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2016, was unfazed.

“We are not here to duck the tough issues. We are here to take on the tough issues,” Cuomo told reporters at the Capitol after a meeting with legislative leaders. “I said to my colleagues, they elect us to lead and they elect us to solve the problems that have dogged this state and this society for many, many years.”

The state Rifle and Pistol Association yesterday said it is filing a lawsuit against the state [2]over the law, and Cuomo said the lawsuit was also expected. He predicted the law would withstand a court challenge.

Cuomo said that gun owners would be more comfortable with the law once they better understand it and realize the state is not targeting law-abiding gun owners.

“The more that they understand the law and the more they hear about the law, the better they are going to feel because it has nothing to do with the legitimate ownership of a gun,” Cuomo continued.

Gun-rights groups have expressed concern that by owning legal guns, such as assault weapons, they will be in violation of the law. Gun owners have a year to register their guns as part of the law’s tougher ban on assault weapons.

Cuomo said all that is required is filling out a card to register any assault weapons that are still legal under the law.

“If you have an assault rifle, which we believe is extraordinarily dangerous in the wrong hands, you have it, you own it, you register it if you want to keep it. People register handguns all the time,” Cuomo explained.

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